Brian Robert BA, MNRM Threadkell

July 29, 1954 – December 15, 2018Brian marched (quickly) to the beat of his own drum. Born in Teuton, MB to Marjorie Jean (Mader) and Rowland Threadkell, he grew up in Winnipeg. At 17 he ran away from home to work for the Hudson’s Bay Co. on the reserve at Brochette in northern MB. When he realized that he’d do better with an education he returned to school – but not always to classes because he was making so much money moving pianos. One summer he solo backpacked from Banff to Jasper with his dog. After university he graded fur until he became allergic to lynx. Returning to the north, he worked in natural resource management in what is now Nunavut, developing commercial fishing and hunting strategies. He met his wife, Ida Marie Friesen, at the fish plant in Rankin Inlet. They made their first home in Winnipeg where he started his consulting business which focussed on implementing the Manitoba Northern Flood Agreement. He especially enjoyed working with the people of Nelson House First Nation and his favourite project was the development of a wilderness camp to teach traditional skills. He was always bringing visiting northerners home for dinner or the weekend. When he moved to Salt Spring in 1990 the commute just got longer but the northerners still visited. His last project was turning a cull into a commercial caribou harvest which employed almost all the hunters in Coral Harbour, NT. This came to an end when the herd went out onto an ice shelf which broke off and floated out into Hudson’s Bay.

Brian could fix anything and he did so with a minimum of tools. With only a jigsaw he redid our entire house. He loved training his dogs and his daily hikes up and down Mt Erskine and Mt Maxwell. He loved playing the trumpet and the flute and stripping down his computer to make it do what he wanted. Perseverance, efficiency and the ability to quickly analyst systems and all things mechanical made him a gifted problem solver but not exactly a glad sufferer of fools.